Melissa Gilbert's SAG Win Challenged

It’s almost as bad as the 2000 presidential race. In an unprecedented move announced on Monday evening, the election committee of the Screen Actors Guild overthrew former “Little House on the Prairie” star Melissa Gilbert’s November presidential win over her three opponents — Valerie Harper, Eugene Boggs and Angel Tompkins — and has ordered a new election, reports Variety. The race is now set for March 15 to April 10 and the same candidates will run. Also forced into re-running: Elliott Gould, who won as secretary over Renee Aubrey, as well as Kevin Kilner and Kent McCord, who won the shared office of treasurer over candidates Amy Aquino and Kathleen Haigney. The committee cited extensive violations to the voting rules as the reason for the hoopla. “These problems arose,” a SAG panel said in a statement, “because SAG senior staff and Sequoia (Voting Systems) representatives treated the election in New York as an entirely different election than the one in the rest of the country.” The issues reportedly were voter deadlines and use of different ballots. SAG spokeswoman Illyanne Kichaven said Gilbert, 37, who outdrew former “Rhoda” star Harper, 61, by nearly 1,600 votes (just under 28,000 ballots were cast), will remain as president through March. Gould and McCord also will stay in office during the same period.